Save Article

Are Hard-Working Chinese Kids
A Model for American Students?

By

Li Yuan

Updated March 12, 2008 6:28 p.m. ET

In November 2006, Jack Li's father, a longtime Caterpillar employee in Beijing, was transferred to Peoria, Ill. Jack enrolled in high school as a ninth-grader. His parents, good friends of mine for almost a decade, weren't particularly worried about their son adapting to a new school in a foreign country -- at least not academically. They believed that China has better K-12 education than the U.S.

Jack didn't disappoint them: Three months later, he scored high enough on the SATs to put him in the top 3% in math and well above-average...

RELATED VIDEO

In his documentary "2 Million Minutes," Bob Compton compares the four years of high school that students spend in the U.S., China and India. He tells the WSJ's Li Yuan which teens are ahead and which are lagging behind.